Bid to open estate to public

Campaigners are calling for a Grade-II listed estate, owned by the BBC, to be opened to the public.

Local residents have now launched a campaign to reinstate footpaths they claim existed in the grounds, and to have a say in its future.

A BBC spokesman said the corporation was still seeking offers for the site.

Don’t Fence Me In founder James Denny, who chaired an online public meeting on the issue last month, said residents in Caversham felt strongly about the lack of recreational space.

He said the group would first look at opening the estate’s footpaths to the public and would then look at working with any potential developer in a bid to use some of the space “in almost cohabitation – so a museum, an art space, a day centre, or opening up the old swimming pool”.

Deputy leader of Reading Borough Council, Tony Page, said: “In the meeting a number of former employees of the BBC said they thought previous footpaths, they remember using across the site, had disappeared.

“Whether they are registered rights of way is unclear but I have invited anyone who used to work there, or local residents, to submit evidence of paths that went across the site so we… can do further validation on the status of those footpaths.”

The BBC spokesman declined to comment on footpaths but said: “As we’ve said previously, we are currently seeking offers for the Caversham Park site and we will provide an update once a sale has been completed.”

Reading East MP Matt Rodda said he was working with the local community and the council “to protect the historic building and open it, and the grounds, up to the public”.

He added: “I would like to see the house open to the public with a museum celebrating its links to the BBC and earlier history incorporated into any redevelopment.”

The Victorian stately home and 93-acre (38-hectare) estate was bought by the BBC in 1941.

Two years later it served as headquarters of BBC Monitoring, which summarises news from 150 countries in 100 different languages for the BBC and is now based at Broadcasting House London.